Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) Receives “Underperform” Rating from Needham & Company LLC

Needham & Company LLC restated their underperform rating on shares of Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) in a research note published on Monday morning,Benzinga reports.

A number of other equities research analysts have also issued reports on META. Wolfe Research lifted their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $670.00 to $730.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, January 3rd. JMP Securities lifted their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $660.00 to $750.00 and gave the company a “market outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 2nd. Sanford C. Bernstein lifted their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $600.00 to $675.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, October 25th. Robert W. Baird lifted their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $605.00 to $630.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 31st. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company lifted their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $641.00 to $685.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, January 13th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating, thirty-five have assigned a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $654.20.

Meta Platforms Trading Up 1.9 %

NASDAQ META opened at $659.88 on Monday. Meta Platforms has a twelve month low of $387.10 and a twelve month high of $663.87. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.18, a quick ratio of 2.73 and a current ratio of 2.73. The stock has a market cap of $1.67 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.08, a PEG ratio of 1.18 and a beta of 1.19. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $604.04 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $561.55.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 30th. The social networking company reported $6.03 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $5.19 by $0.84. The firm had revenue of $40.59 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $40.21 billion. Meta Platforms had a net margin of 35.55% and a return on equity of 35.60%. Equities analysts anticipate that Meta Platforms will post 22.96 EPS for the current year.

Meta Platforms Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, December 27th. Shareholders of record on Monday, December 16th were paid a $0.50 dividend. This represents a $2.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.30%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, December 16th. Meta Platforms’s payout ratio is presently 9.42%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Meta Platforms

In other news, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 420 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, October 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $600.17, for a total transaction of $252,071.40. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 518,004 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $310,890,460.68. This represents a 0.08 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, insider Nicholas Clegg sold 7,296 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, November 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $553.48, for a total transaction of $4,038,190.08. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 38,695 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $21,416,908.60. This represents a 15.86 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 603,032 shares of company stock valued at $368,666,614. Corporate insiders own 13.71% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Meta Platforms

Several large investors have recently made changes to their positions in META. JDM Financial Group LLC bought a new position in Meta Platforms in the third quarter valued at $30,000. Safe Harbor Fiduciary LLC bought a new position in Meta Platforms in the third quarter valued at $36,000. Avondale Wealth Management bought a new position in Meta Platforms in the fourth quarter valued at $41,000. Halpern Financial Inc. bought a new position in Meta Platforms in the third quarter valued at $46,000. Finally, West Financial Advisors LLC bought a new position in Meta Platforms in the third quarter valued at $49,000. Institutional investors own 79.91% of the company’s stock.

Meta Platforms Company Profile

Meta Platforms, Inc engages in the development of products that enable people to connect and share with friends and family through mobile devices, personal computers, virtual reality headsets, and wearables worldwide. It operates in two segments, Family of Apps and Reality Labs. The Family of Apps segment offers Facebook, which enables people to share, discuss, discover, and connect with interests; Instagram, a community for sharing photos, videos, and private messages, as well as feed, stories, reels, video, live, and shops; Messenger, a messaging application for people to connect with friends, family, communities, and businesses across platforms and devices through text, audio, and video calls; and WhatsApp, a messaging application that is used by people and businesses to communicate and transact privately.